Cinco De Twins

I met my cousin at the game on one of the most beautiful days of the season. We settled into section A and shortly after a quick catch up of navigating Target Field, Ryan Jeffers hit a solo homerun.

"That might be all we need today" I said to her, "With the way our pitching has gone of late..."

Oh, how wrong I was...

My cousin Sarah is one of the few other female children I knew who listened to twins games as a child. I remember going to visit them one night at their home in Kerrick MN (google it) and being very concerned that I wouldn't be able to listen to the game as I fell asleep.

"I like to listen to the twins game..." I mentioned brushing my teeth as a pre-teen. "So do we" My cousin and her sister responded.

I remember falling asleep that night realizing that my cousins likely were the only girls as obsessed with the Twins as I was. I also, that night, learned a new appreciation for the power of AM radio...as they literally lived nowhere. Dirt roads of small Minnesota I certainly wasn't used to growing up in Minneapolis.

"I didn't realize what a toll that likely took on my dad..." My cousin mentioned as we went back and forth between analyzing the twins game and analyzing our childhoods. "Dad would drive us to the twins game on a school night, three hours, we'd sit in the outfield and then we'd drive back three hours and he'd work the next day."

"Insanity" I responded... (and it was an apt response)

"He just loved this team."

Boston put back some runs and suddenly it was 3-1 but the runs were kind of fluke-like so it didn't concern me. We'd get them back.

My uncle passed away in 2015 from a burst aneurism. Three months later my own father survived one. My cousin and I were always close, but we made a point to get together more often after that. She is a nurse at the Veterans Hospital. She lives in the dreaded St. Paul. ;)

The two of us happened to be at the game which was Joe Mauer's last. At the time we were wandering the pavillion deciding if we would stay at the game or not. Suddenly there is Mauer out to play catcher. Knowing baseball and it's antics pretty well, we both paused, "I'll bet this is his last game..."

"He's retiring and didn't tell anyone..."

Sure enough it hit the papers a few weeks later. Turns out that was Joe Mauer's last time every putting on catcher gear as a pro ball player.

Funderburk came in after a solid outing by Joe Ryan. He loaded the bases... it happened quickly. Then Jay Jackson came into relief of him. Jackson gave up a grand slam almost immediately.

"Ugh!" I lamented, "Our middle relief is still... a work in progress..."

"I knew I shouldn't have come today..." Sarah joked, "with this win streak on the line..."

Two thoroughly Minnesota sports fans sitting on a winning streak can't help but be a little pessimistic though I don't allow much of that in my section. "No!" I objected, "We've got the T-wolves smoking everyone, the new franchise QB and the hottest team in baseball! There are no Jinx', this is our year!"

She laughed. Her dad's voice echoed in my ears if it didn't hers: "We just need Kirby back!"

Our relief ended up being not much relief at all, more stress. The twins managed a second run but it was lost by then in many ways but the weather.

"what a great day for a ballgame!"

We checked the calendar to try to find another one to go to together. For me, family and baseball go hand in hand.

Twins Lose 9-2

Ryan (L) 6ip 5k

TEAMS 10 LOB